July 2008

Leadership: Strategies
SOUNDVIEW Executive
Book Summaries
www.summary.com
®

Creating the
Accountable Organization
A Practical Guide to Improve
Performance Execution
THE SUMMARY IN BRIEF
Creating the accountable organization means developing a culture where peo-
ple at all levels of the organization can be counted on to keep their commitments
and agreements. Author Mark Samuel describes strategies and techniques for by Mark Samuel
increasing both individual and shared accountability.This includes within and
between teams as well as between different departments.
The guidance offered is for leaders and change agents at any level within an
organization who are ready to move to the next level of excellence and success. CONTENTS
Based on practical experience — more than 20 years of implementing change, Part One: Break Away
research and learning from mistakes as well as successes — Creating the Accountable From Old Leadership
Organization challenges preconceived notions of leadership and accountability and Paradigms
shows readers how to lead a business so it remains effective, competitive and successful Pages 2, 3, 4, 5
in the face of continual pressure to perform at higher levels. It also provides practical Unleash Ability Through
strategies and tools used by leading organizations in diverse industries to achieve Accountability
breakthrough results. Pages 2, 3
Create an
IN THIS SUMMARY, YOU WILL LEARN: Accountable Culture
Page 3
• How to transform meaningless activities, such as ineffective meetings, overused
task forces and never-ending restructuring, into meaningful actions. The Formula to Achieve
• How to develop a culture where people at all levels of the organization can be Breakthroughs
counted on to keep their commitments and agreements. Page 4

• How to address nonperformers who survive at the expense of hard-working Part Two: Six Strategies
top performers. for Leading With
Accountability
• How to achieve what matters most to you and your company by understanding
Pages 5, 6, 7, 8
the principles and realities of accountability.
Get Started: Your Next
Steps to Achieve
Published by Soundview Executive Book Summaries, P.O. Box 1053, Concordville, PA 19331 USA Breakthrough Results
© 2008 Soundview Executive Book Summaries • All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part Page 8
is prohibited. Concentrated Knowledge™ for the Busy Executive • www.summary.com
July 2008 • Order # TFS-30D
 THE COMPLETE SUMMARY:
CREATING THE ACCOUNTABLE ORGANIZATION
by Mark Samuel

The author: Mark Samuel is a leader in the Personal and Organizational Accountability Movement, firmly committed to inspir-
ing excellence using the principles found in this book. He is president of IMPAQ, a California-based, worldwide consulting firm
that teaches organizations how to thrive in the competitive 21st-century global marketplace.
Creating the Accountable Organization © 2006 by Mark Samuel. Summarized with permission of the publisher, Xephor Press.
180 pages. $15.95. ISBN 978-0-9752638-5-3.
Summary copyright © 2008 by Soundview Executive Book Summaries, www.summary.com, 1-800-SUMMARY, 1-610-558-9495.

PART ONE: BREAK AWAY FROM Level 4: Cross-Functional Accountability. Business

OLD LEADERSHIP PARADIGMS
Unleash Ability Through
Accountability
Personal accountability is a key driver for organization-
al accountability. However, organizational accountability
goes beyond personal accountability.
Within your organization, you will find some man-
agers and employees functioning at lower levels of
accountability and others functioning at higher levels.
There are five levels of accountability:
Level 1: Entitlement. When an organization is
plagued by an attitude of entitlement, employees are paid
for showing up on the job regardless of performance.
Convenience determines effort. Morale is low from the
indifference that everyone has for his or her own perfor-
mance and for each other’s performance.
Level 2: Individual Accountability. Individual
accountability is an improvement on entitlement. At this
level, employees take responsibility for completing their
own assignments based on their own job descriptions,
without concern for the impact they may have on oth-
ers. People are competitive with their teammates and
support is minimal.
Level 3: Work Unit Accountability. Teams are
another stage on the route to organizational accountabil-
ity. At this stage, the success of the team is more important
than any particular individual’s success. Competition
among team members is lower, but territorialism
between teams is high.Teams address individual poor
performance and behaviors that keep the team from
being successful.
outcomes determine the makeup of the team to get the
job done regardless of function. Decisions are made to
include as many functions or departments as are affected.
Achieving defined outcomes is more important than the
success of any one team or individual. Coordination
among teams and individuals is high.Territorialism doesn’t
exist and individual competition is minimal.
Level 5: Organizational Accountability. Business
outcomes still drive performance and decision making,
but they now include cross-divisional decisions, knowl-
edge sharing and sharing of resources. All levels of the
organization are accountable to each other, creating a
Increasing Organizational
Accountability
Here are three principles for increasing organiza-
tional accountability:
1. Accountability increases one level at a
time. It takes six months to a year to solidify each
new level.
2. As levels of accountability increase, perfor-
mance and behavioral expectations increase. As
levels of accountability increase, it becomes less
acceptable to accomplish individual performance
goals without considering the effect on other peo-
ple in the organization who need to accomplish
their goals.
3. The further removed an individual is from the
organization’s current level of accountability, the
greater the pressure will be for that person to leave
the organization. This is true whether an individual’s
level of accountability is higher than or lower than
that of the organization.

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 Summary: CREATING THE ACCOUNTABLE ORGANIZATION
“fluid” organization. Any person can act as the leader to
any other person, regardless of position, when it is neces-
sary for accomplishing business outcomes. ●
Create an Accountable Culture
You need only look at organizational breakdowns and
failures to see that culture is anything but a “soft” issue.
For example, when one organization lost its competi-
tive edge because it didn’t release its new product in
time to head off the competition, the issue was cultural,
not technical.The organization had a culture of inde-
pendence where people didn’t show up at meetings on
time, people constantly checked their e-mail using
Blackberries and some would leave the meetings before
they were concluded.This resulted in a lack of decision
making and not taking the action necessary to com-
plete the new product line.
Culture:The Backbone of an Organization
The culture of an organization involves more than the
style, attitude, communication and skill of its managers
and employees.The reason it has been treated as a soft
issue is that it seems to affect people and morale more
than it affects business results. Consequently, we debate
which culture is best — team-based, self-directed,
empowered, diverse or something else — without
reflecting on the primary purpose of any culture, which
is to achieve the business outcomes.
An organization’s culture involves a collective mindset
and the linkage between people in the form of behavior
patterns that support the collective mindset. These
behavior patterns between people represent “habits of
performance execution” that result in business outcomes.
Performance execution is comprised of habits that
represent the automatic behavior demonstrated on a
consistent basis in the organization.
Five Steps to Create Organizational
Accountability
Developing a culture that produces breakthrough
results involves more than changing behaviors or atti-
tudes or adding new skills to the work force. It
involves developing new habits of performance execu-
tion. Although it may take years to change all the bad
habits of an organization, with focused attention and
deliberate methodology, it only requires three to six
months to change enough significant habits to achieve
measurable impact on an organization’s desired busi-
ness outcomes.
www.summary.com Soundview Executive Book Summaries® 3
Step 1: Introduce a New Mindset. When
any change is implemented in an organization, start
by clarifying the new mindset in terms of expanding
roles and new responsibilities; identifying how the relation-
ships in the organization may be altered based on the
change and desired outcomes being accomplished;
and, finally, clarifying any new expectations for improved
performance or productivity as a result of the change
you are implementing.
Step 2: Identify and Reverse Dysfunctional
Habits of Performance Execution. The organiza-
tion needs to identify the “bad” habits of performance
execution that have kept it from achieving its previous
desired outcomes. Once the dysfunctional habits
have been identified, it is necessary to develop
descriptions of the desired habits so that people can
get a true sense of the ways of successful functioning
in the organization.
Step 3: Measure the Effectiveness of the New
Habits of Performance Execution. To successfully
change a habit, you must repeat the new habit until it
becomes automatic behavior. Although most organizations
use measurement to evaluate results, the first purpose of
measurement is focus.What you measure, you focus on.
For example, top athletes measure how much water
they drink, the quantities and combinations of food they
eat, and how much they sleep.This doesn’t evaluate their
skill or performance as an athlete, but it does keep them
focused on the aspects of performance execution that
lead to top performance.
Step 4: Establish Recovery Systems Prior to
Implementation. This is the most important step for
ensuring sustained results.You must be prepared with a
recovery strategy so that you can act when a crisis occurs,
when you regress to old habits of behavior or when
you discover that the new behavior isn’t working as
well as desired.
Step 5: Recognize Results and People. Successful
recognition involves recognizing the impact that elimi-
nating dysfunctional habits had on the organization’s
business outcomes. It also involves recognizing people’s
efforts when appropriate and linking them to the actual
improvements and progress made by the organization. ●
Three Traps of Ineffective
Leadership
To develop accountable and effective organizations,
you must follow the following guidelines: Focus on the
 Summary: CREATING THE ACCOUNTABLE ORGANIZATION
desired outcome rather than on the process; create safety,
not comfort; and focus on recovery, not on perfection.
Beware of the three traps of ineffective leadership:
Trap #1: Seeking the perfect process and getting stuck
in analysis paralysis.
Trap #2:The desired progress to achieve results comes
to a halt because of disagreements regarding the purpose
or direction of the goal or project.
Trap #3: Failing to hold people accountable when
they are not achieving the outcome.
Benefits of Creating a Recovery System
Creating a recovery system is a way to stay in the game
rather than forfeit the game altogether. Mistakes will
occur and unexpected events will take place, but for the
organization that has a recovery system in place, adjust-
ments can be made swiftly and effectively to achieve the
desired outcomes.
Recovery systems are the key to creating an environment
of safety that leads to greater accountability.We can solve
only those problems that we know about.Without an effec-
tive recovery system, problems remain hidden, conflicts
remain unresolved and the resulting culture of nonperfor-
mance continues as the norm within the organization. ●
The Formula to Achieve
Breakthroughs
Guiding people to action helps them move through
their fear of change. Before people can be more account-
able and take action to pursue a new direction, they must
have a sense that, like the beginning skier, they are safe
enough to risk action that catapults them out of their
comfort zone. Otherwise, taking action in a new direction
will feel punishing. Paradoxically, the only way for them to
increase their level of safety is for them to be accountable
and to take action. As our safety increases through taking
action, so does our comfort.
Being safe to take risks does not mean that you feel no
pain or discomfort. In a workplace of constant change and
pressure to achieve greater results, people tend to respond
either with discomfort and pain, or numbness and denial.
When an individual (or group) is in denial, there are
three steps to facilitate taking accountability.The first step
is to increase accountability by telling the truth about the
situation. Once the truth is realized, people will tend to
experience the pain or discomfort of the situation.
The second step is to increase safety for the person to
experience his discomfort and to prepare for taking
action by acknowledging his discomfort without judging
4 Soundview Executive Book Summaries® www.summary.com
him for being uncomfortable and by believing in him
and encouraging him to take action.
The third step is providing the person in denial with
guidance using specific steps for taking action. By taking
action, the person builds his own “safety” and self-confi-
dence to continue taking more accountability. ●
Leadership Roles That Produce
Breakthrough Results
Success is more easily sustained when each level of an
organization assumes accountability for its distinct role.
Here’s how success happens when everyone works together:
1. Senior managers (catalysts for results and change)
should lead and guide the organizational direction and
the culture in response to external drivers.This includes
translating external drivers into a clear strategic business
plan and monitoring and guiding middle management in
achieving operational priorities.
2. Middle managers (change agents) should guide the cul-
ture and operations to ensure effective linkages and the
Ten Ways to Create Safe
Accountability in Your
Organization
1. Set clear and mutually agreed-upon expecta-
tions with people with regard to both performance
and behavior.
2. Share information openly and at appropriate
times to avoid unnecessary surprises.
3. Surface any conflict directly with the
person involved.
4. Provide encouragement, guidance and other
forms of support to individuals who need to make
a change.
5. Focus on functional roles and processes rather
than position and power to accomplish outcomes.
6. Support the development of people and systems
to respond to the needs of tomorrow and to avoid
reacting only to crises.
7. Monitor and measure the results of each team
and individual so that people know exactly where
they stand.
8. Do not allow people to perform or behave poorly
without making it clear that their performance or
behavior is unacceptable.
9. Follow up on commitments so that people can
depend on your words and your consistency.
10. Let others know the care, appreciation and
compassion you feel, instead of holding back.
 Summary: CREATING THE ACCOUNTABLE ORGANIZATION
removal of unnecessary obstacles.This includes translating
the strategic business plan into a strategic operations plan
by aligning efforts around the operational priorities.
3. Employees (customer activists) should be dedicated to
improving their relationships with others and their per-
formance as it impacts the customer as well as the orga-
nization. This includes identifying and meeting customer
expectations and improving technical processes and indi-
vidual performance to meet operational priorities.
Ultimately, your goal is to be accountable for your
own actions and dedicated to your own improvement so
that you can achieve your desired outcomes.With an
accountable environment in place, the organization is
able to recover quickly — through focus, involvement
and dedication at all levels — from any dips in success
that may occur. ●
PART TWO: SIX STRATEGIES FOR
LEADING WITH ACCOUNTABILITY
Strategy #1: From Empty
Platitudes to Clear Direction
The purpose of an effective vision statement is to pro-
vide a clear and meaningful direction, inspiring people to
attain a new level of excellence. A vision statement rep-
resents the intention of the organization, department or
team based on the aspirations, values and clear sense of
purpose of the authors.When a vision is clear, it reads
like an action-oriented story that provides clear account-
ability, expectations and outcomes that could be mea-
sured. The vision statement is your intention.
Creating a Clear Vision Statement
A vision statement needs substance. It must be stated
so vividly as to be almost tangible.
A vision statement is characterized by four essential
elements. It should be:
1. Responsive. It identifies the external drivers affecting
the organization and how the organization needs to
change in order to meet these challenges.
2. Customer-driven. It focuses on the organization’s
distinctiveness and how it wants to be perceived by
its customers.
3. Action-oriented. It defines the internal environment
that is required for the vision to become a reality.
4. Practical. It describes the contribution to the financial
and long-term viability of the organization, its stock-
holders and the community at large.
www.summary.com Soundview Executive Book Summaries® 5
Goals are necessary for translating the vision of the orga-
nization into meaningful and measurable performance
objectives. However, goals must always be subordinate to
the outcomes described in the organization’s vision.
Bottom Line: Accountability
A vision statement sets up accountability.That is its key
purpose. As long as the direction remains vague or
unclear, people don’t have to be accountable for chang-
ing their behavior in order to be consistent with it.
Once the vision is clear, the challenge is developing
priorities to ensure that you stay focused and clear on
what you need to accomplish to be successful. ●
Strategy #2: Translating
Clear Direction Into
Non-Negotiable Priorities
A midsized biotechnical company went through the
process of strategic planning. It approached strategic
planning in a comprehensive manner involving an exter-
nal consultant who helped the company analyze its
industry and conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats) analysis.
After several months of careful analysis, senior man-
agers identified the business outcomes and deliverables
they were expecting.They identified 53 projects and
carefully developed objectives and action plans for each.
After six months, the management team found that lit-
tle progress had been made and that people were feeling
overwhelmed and confused about the real priorities.
Besides, as the business environment changed, the team had
added new priorities and now were up to 65 priorities!
In just a few hours of working with senior manage-
ment, another consultant firm identified the top 10
priorities and established meetings to track these 10.
Within six months, the management team had completed
80 percent of their top 10 priorities and were making
great progress on the other 20 percent.
Establishing the Top 10 Priorities
It is the role of executives and senior management to
establish direction for an organization. Accordingly, it is
important for them to be clear on the “non-negotiable”
priorities that must be accomplished for the organization
to progress and succeed. Based on strategic goals, man-
agers must agree on the top priorities to ensure align-
ment and focus for the rest of the organization.
Leaders who have mastered accountability accomplish
this role by having managers identify all the possible top
 Summary: CREATING THE ACCOUNTABLE ORGANIZATION
priorities. Next, they narrow the list down to what is most
important for the larger organization.This requires each
manager to step outside of the box of his or her particular
line of authority and to take responsibility for the success
of the entire organization.Although the organization is
accomplishing more than 10 priorities, the executive team
(as a team) stays focused on the top 10 to ensure success.
Cross-Functional Accountability
Each of the top 10 priorities must have a project owner.
However, the entire team of managers is accountable for
the success of all 10 priorities.That means if any of the
projects fail, it is the entire team that is held accountable.
The entire team monitors the progress of these top 10
priorities to make sure the project is on track, and acts as
troubleshooters and problem solvers when issues surface
that might prevent the success of the projects.
A team’s purpose is to accomplish business outcomes
in the most effective and efficient way possible.The way
a team achieves its purpose is to ensure “shared account-
ability” is in place so that each person completes his or
her commitments of performance and communication so
that all the business priorities are accomplished. ●
Strategy #3: Execution:
The Key to High Performance
Although ropes courses, experiential retreats and
training programs can raise the awareness of working in
teams and understanding the impact people have on each
other, by themselves, they rarely change habits of perfor-
mance execution.
Changing habits of performance execution to raise the
level of team performance is achieved over time in a sys-
tematic way that is tracked and measured until the new
habit becomes “the way things are done in this organiza-
tion.” The following three steps are used to improve per-
formance execution:
Step 1: Develop a Team Vision of Excellence —
a Stretch. Using the approach previously discussed, your
team develops a vision statement representing the highest
levels of excellence regarding your reputation with cus-
tomers, your teamwork and your value to the organization.
Step 2: Develop Success Factors of Performance
Execution. Once the vision is clear, the team identifies a
list of Success Factors of performance execution, which
describe in detail everything that the team will be doing
to fulfill its vision.
Step 3: Prioritize Success Factor Improvement
Goals. Once Success Factors of performance execution
6 Soundview Executive Book Summaries® www.summary.com
are agreed on by all team members, each team member
chooses the top three Success Factors he or she feels
would have the biggest impact if improvement took
place. As a result, the department agrees on three Success
Factors that they turn into improvement goals. Team mem-
bers develop action plans for improving each of the cho-
sen Success Factors and agree to review progress at each
of their team meetings. ●
Strategy #4: Proactive Recovery:
The Secret to Accountable
Performance Execution
What do top-performing basketball teams focus on
when they practice? Proactive recovery. The coach sets up
“what if ” scenarios in which the team must deal with
the unexpected.What happens when things break down?
What happens when the team’s outside shots aren’t going
in or when its star player gets hurt? The coach makes
sure that the team practices its ability to recover when
various breakdowns occur. Everyone develops the skills
to respond to difficult situations, as well as the ability to
mobilize the team to recover from breakdowns in the
most effective manner.
The team with the fastest and most effective recovery
will be the highest-performing team. Its members can
respond both to crisis situations and to changes more
effectively, because they are best-equipped with the
flexibility required to continually adjust to change and
unforeseen situations that take place.
The Five Stages of Recovery
When a problem surfaces, either a team can recover by
surfacing the problem and responding as a seamless oper-
ation or drag out the problem by hiding and blaming
others for mistakes.To create enough “safety” for people
to admit mistakes, raise concerns and hold others
accountable, it is useful to understand the five primary
stages of proactive recovery.They are:
Stage 1: Self-Correction. First, you have to become
aware that a problem exists.The fastest way to do that
is for you to be aware of your own mistakes as soon
as they occur.
Stage 2: Observation by Co-Worker. The next
fastest route to recovery is to have a team member
observe and point out the problem to the person who is
responsible for it.
Stage 3: Coaching by Co-Worker. In an account-
ability-based organization, a team member will offer to
provide guidance or coaching.
 Summary: CREATING THE ACCOUNTABLE ORGANIZATION
Stage 4: Coaching by Manager. Sometimes it is
necessary for the manager to step in and offer his or her
perspective, skills, encouragement, and the articulation of
clear expectations and deadlines.
Stage 5: Corrective Action by Manager. If the
problem continues, the leader needs to move into
corrective action with the specific nonperforming
team member to ensure that his or her performance
improves and that he or she becomes a contributing
team member. This corrective action process involves
documentation as well as contact with human
resources to ensure fairness both to the employee
as well as to the employee’s co-workers.
Ultimately, the goal is to create teams in which mem-
bers have the safety to challenge each other in a support-
ive way and to surface and resolve conflict without getting
stuck in hurt feelings, resentment or retaliation. Once
teams know how to recover with grace, speed and a unit-
ed focus, no crisis or change is too great to handle. ●
Strategy #5: Create a Plan for
Change That Guarantees Results
Whether the change you are planning involves organi-
zational restructuring, introducing new technology or
implementing a culture change, there are certain steps
that must be followed to ensure accountability during
the change process. Including people in the change
without following the steps to ensure accountability
creates breakdowns that prevent success. In this case,
you are setting people up for failure.
Creating a Plan
Here are nine steps to creating a plan that achieves results:
Step 1: Define a Clear Outcome. Prior to initiating
a plan, it is important to have a clear picture of success.
Step 2: Determine Measurable Indicators for
Success. The measurable indicators are necessary for
acknowledging success afterward and assisting the
“naysayers” to come into alignment with the change.
Step 3: Identify Success Factors of Performance
Execution. It is important to have a clear idea of what
needs to happen during the change effort in order to
ensure success afterward.
Step 4: Set Milestones and Timing for Success.
Milestones present a road map for accomplishing the
plan and provide the means for tracking the results as
progress is made.
Step 5: Recognize Challenges, Obstacles and
Constraints. Too often, we wait to identify obstacles
www.summary.com Soundview Executive Book Summaries® 7
until implementation begins only to find that it is too
late to deal with them.
Step 6: Take Actions to Achieve the Milestones.
These actions must not only assist in achieving the first
milestone, but they must also be proactive to address
future milestones if appropriate.
Step 7: Develop a Recovery Process. Various types
of breakdowns are identified and then a recovery plan is
established that outlines what resources are needed and
how they will be mobilized to get back on track.
Step 8: Assign Follow-Up Accountability. Once a
plan has been documented, it is important to establish a
regular follow-up system to ensure that each milestone is
being completed on time as agreed.
Step 9: Evaluate Results and Recognize Who’s
Responsible. Once the implementation is complete, it
is critical to measure the results in comparison with the
desired outcomes. ●
Strategy #6: Communicate
to Influence ‘Nonbelievers’
When a mindset change is necessary for implementing a
new organizational structure, new technology or new
global processes and procedures, then making buy-in the
purpose of communication can be a “death trap.”What
makes a mind-set change different from other changes is
that it requires you to view the project from a new per-
spective. When you are stuck in your old familiar per-
spective, you won’t necessarily see the value of the new
mind-set.You have to experience it to grasp its value.
It is only through experiencing the solutions that we
will achieve breakthrough results and prevent the natural
resistance associated with adopting the new mind-set.
This is one of the great paradoxes of leadership.
Stop Selling Change
The term buy-in has always carried with it a notion of
selling. A “sales-oriented” approach creates skepticism,
misunderstanding and confusion about the solution once
it is implemented. Often, people go through the motions
of the change without really understanding why it is
being made. Honest and open communication is at the
core of accountability.
The following six steps provide a road map for pre-
senting a change effort:
Step 1: Explain the Context for Change.
Ultimately, you want people to understand where the
change is coming from and what direction it is support-
ing in terms of the vision of the organization.
 Summary: CREATING THE ACCOUNTABLE ORGANIZATION
Step 2: Present the Positives and Negatives of
the Current Situation. It is important to list both
the positive and negative attributes of the current
situation, especially in context with the external drivers
that need to be responded to and the vision of
a better future.
Step 3: Present the Positives and Negatives of
the Proposed Change. Be truthful and provide people
with a clear comparison between the current situation
and the change.
Step 4: Present the Strategy and Action Plan.
Present the strategy and action plan for minimizing the
challenges and costs of making the change. Let people
know that the negatives of the change effort are tempo-
rary as compared to the negatives of the current situa-
tion, which are more permanent (because they have
never been addressed).
Step 5: Elicit Involvement. For the negatives that
still remain to be addressed, you will create task forces
made up of volunteers from the group implementing
the change.
Step 6: Offer the Final Choice. Give people a clear
choice about participating in the change.This is where
accountability is established. ●
Get Started: Your Next Steps to
Achieve Breakthrough Results
You cannot create an accountable organization
through a training program on personal accountability.
Although this can help to make everyone aware of
being accountable, it won’t address the issues of perfor-
mance execution that involve teams of people working
together to define accountable practices and habits.
Nor can you achieve an accountable organization by
having managers create contracts with each other,
because this won’t address the issues that arise when
someone breaks a contract and doesn’t address lower
levels in the organization.
If you want to develop an accountable organization,
you must improve personal accountability, team account-
ability and cross-functional accountability.
Creating Organizational Accountability
There are six steps to creating organizational accountability:
Step 1: Clear Directions From Executives. They
must be clear on the vision and business strategy for
change based on external drivers, internal goals and
values of the organization.
8 Soundview Executive Book Summaries® www.summary.com
Step 2: Shared Accountability With Middle
Management. Middle managers are the change agents
for creating an accountable organization.They must
work together as a team of leaders, directing the organi-
zation from an operational standpoint.
Step 3: Personal Accountability for All
Employees. Supervisors and employees at nonmanager-
ial levels must be introduced to accountability and gain
clear understanding of the benefits to them and the
organization in being accountable.
Step 4: Shared Accountability in Departments,
Work Units and Project Teams. When these teams
create a clear vision of excellence, followed by the Success
Factors of performance that they commit to improving,
performance and morale increase at lightning speed.
Step 5: Accountable Performance Management.
Managers must have a system for managing performance
that enables them to effectively diagnose the improve-
ment needs for each direct report, prioritize the focus
of improvement and develop effective “nondefensive”
forms of communication to coach people.
Step 6: Measurement, Celebration and Renewal.
Having a system to share bottom-line results so the
entire organization can benefit from all its successes
is necessary to solidify accountability.
Achieving Results
Organizations need to demonstrate accountability to
achieve results. It is the core of employee satisfaction and
high performance.Without organizational accountability,
an organization cannot adapt to change effectively.
Whatever problems are solved by being more
accountable, you will create new problems in their
place.They will be “higher level” problems, and when
those are resolved as you become more accountable,
you will have new “even higher level” problems to
resolve.The good news is that as you develop higher
levels of accountability, you will be able to solve all
of those problems and more — resulting in greater
strength and much greater success. ●
RECOMMENDED READING LIST
If you liked Creating the Accountable Organization, you’ll also like:
1. A Leader’s Legacy by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. Powerful
essays for leaders to consider that cover significance, relationships,
aspirations and courage.
2. The Leader of the Future 2 by Marshall Goldsmith and Frances Hesselbein.
For leaders who must be able to successfully adapt to the latest trends and
marketplace opportunities.
3. The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom.
Two different organizational styles are discussed, centralized and decen-
tralized. A smart business model contains parts of both.